Musings

How do spaces held sacred by a community reflect and communicate the world view and values of the people for whom the space is sacred? This is the question at the root of our work this winter, and as our exploration continues, we will invite the group to reflect directly on that question and post […]

by Diane I have been on a bit of a Fred Rogers kick lately. It began with going to see the excellent documentary film about his life and work this summer – twice (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?). It continued with a visit to the Central branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia to see […]

In mid-February, our study of the American Civil War began as meaningful learning usually does — with questions. So many questions!! Nearly everyone in the group had only passing knowledge of the conflict, though all seemed to be aware (perhaps because we had been harping on the shared birthdays of Charles Darwin, subject of our […]

Our story (read aloud) time in the break-out room this year has been a bit unusual so far. Rather than beginning the year with a novel — often a classic — the material was tied more specifically to our thematic study, and we read a significant number of biographies of naturalists. Typically, they were from […]

I’ve long struggled with the expression, “real work,” when it’s used to suggest that certain realities (the abstract, theoretical, or idealized sphere of the classroom, laboratory, etc.) aren’t as meaningful, as authentic, or as rich as other situations. I find it to be too pat a distinction. What we experience in our day to day […]

So much attention is paid to reading and then to writing in the first years of school, that it is easy to overlook the importance that conversation — that first language-based connection we ever have with our children — continues to hold. In our fifth and sixth grade group, it is central to our work […]

So much of the building of any community — a classroom group, a family, a project at work, a relationship with neighbors — is about creating routines, rituals, habits. In my neighborhood, for example, when we moved in some 16 years ago, we were gently informed that arranging to have the mail stopped at the […]

Several weeks before conference week and spring break, we began the third and final portion of our study of “place,” launching a study of migration (immigration, emigration, etc.) LiteraWe began with a new read aloud book, the sadly true, moving and hopeful story told by Linda Sue Park, A Long Walk to Water. This story, […]

One of the more distinct elements of Miquon culture is our insistence on referring to the time not spent in more structured activity with a class group or specialist choice rather than recess. It is not simply a semantic difference. The time spent by the 10 – 12 year olds in our building, between 10:30 and […]

While working on finishing the tessellations we’ve been drawing, and hope to have on display for families at the upcoming Back to School Night, we were also listening to The Hobbit, the year’s first read aloud. I have read this book multiple times, yet am struck again by the richness and humor of Tolkien’s writing, […]